Two Fatalities in One Day Bring San Francisco’s Pedestrian Death Count to Double Digits

Less than an hour later, a second incident occurred on Geneva Avenue in the Excelsior, which Walk SF, a pedestrian safety group, alleged was a hit-and-run. SFPD officers met paramedics on the scene, reporting a deceased person located in the street. Police have not yet determined an official cause of death.

The incidents mark the 10th and 11th pedestrian deaths of 2026.

“People are dying simply walking in our city,” said Jodie Medeiros, Walk SF’s executive director. “We should be able to get around San Francisco safely as pedestrians.”

“We look to our leaders and everyone driving on our streets to make human life the priority in their decisions,” she continued.

This year’s first eight fatalities, which include a two-year-old and 74-year-old Dannielle Spillman, whose case is being investigated as a murder, occurred in quick succession between February and April, reinvigorating concerns about traffic safety in the city.

“It’s a lot to process and it just starts to feel like this is just happening so often,” said Marta Lindsey, Walk SF’s communications director.

San Francisco has tried to address the issue for more than a decade. In 2014 it launched “Vision Zero,” a policy aimed at completely eliminating traffic fatalities over the course of a decade. But 2024, when the plan expired, was the deadliest year for pedestrians since its launch.

In December, Mayor Daniel Lurie signed a new street safety strategy, the “Street Safety Act,” which creates specific goals for various city agencies, including the police, public health and public works departments, and requires them to work together to ensure traffic safety.

Lindsey said Walk SF will be looking at the mayor’s six-month check in, scheduled for mid-June, to see progress on the initiatives’ promises.

Within six months, the Street Safety Act committed to: launching a public dashboard to track progress, developing a process to add safety improvements to roads being repaved, establishing design standards and setting time limits on traffic calming projects.

It also promised to release a Traffic Enforcement Safety Strategy report that identifies crash-causing behaviors and enforcement solutions, among other initiatives.

“Our leaders have said and legislated good things that can improve street safety, but now these agencies have to deliver them and our leaders have to hold them to that,” Lindsey said.

“It’s too soon to say, but obviously the fact that we have had 11 pedestrians die already this year is not a great indicator,” she added.